The Southern Piedmont’s continued land-use evolution, 1973–2011
Roger F. Auch, Darrell E. Napton, Kristi L. Sayler, Mark A. Drummond, Steven Kambly, Daniel G. Sorenson
2015, Southeastern Geographer (55) 338-361
The southern Piedmont in the U.S. was an important farming region during the 19th century, but by the end of the 20th century, agricultural land use had decreased substantially with forest becoming the majority land cover by the 1970s. Geographical literature has documented this change but has not concentrated on...
Concentrations and distributions of metals associated with dissolved organic matter from the Suwannee River (GA, USA)
M. Keshia Kuhn, Elisabeth Neubauer, Thilo Hofmann, Frank von der Kammer, George R. Aiken, Patricia A. Maurice
2015, Environmental Engineering Science (32) 54-65
Concentrations and distributions of metals in Suwannee River (SR) raw filtered surface water (RFSW) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) processed by reverse osmosis (RO), XAD-8 resin (for humic and fulvic acids [FA]), and XAD-4 resin (for “transphilic” acids) were analyzed by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AsFlFFF). SR samples were compared...
Hydrothermal, biogenic, and seawater components in metalliferous black shales of the Brooks Range, Alaska: Synsedimentary metal enrichment in a carbonate ramp setting
John F. Slack, David Selby, Julie A. Dumoulin
2015, Economic Geology (110) 653-675
Trace element and Os isotope data for Lisburne Group metalliferous black shales of Middle Mississippian (early Chesterian) age in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska suggest that metals were sourced chiefly from local seawater (including biogenic detritus) but also from externally derived hydrothermal fluids. These black shales are interbedded with...
Potential role of acetyl-CoA synthetase (acs) and malate dehydrogenase (mae) in the evolution of the acetate switch in Bacteria and Archaea
Elliott P. Barnhart, Marcella A. McClure, Kiki Johnson, Sean Cleveland, Kristopher A. Hunt, Matthew W. Fields
2015, Scientific Reports (5) 1-10
Although many Archaea have AMP-Acs (acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase) and ADP-Acs, the extant methanogenic genus Methanosarcina is the only identified Archaeal genus that can utilize acetate via acetate kinase (Ack) and phosphotransacetylase (Pta). Despite the importance of ack as the potential urkinase in the ASKHA phosphotransferase superfamily, an origin hypothesis does...
Arsenic and antimony geochemistry of mine wastes, associated waters and sediments at the Giant Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
Skya E. Fawcett, Heather E. Jamieson, D. Kirk Nordstrom, R. Blaine McCleskey
2015, Applied Geochemistry (62) 3-17
Elevated levels of arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) in water and sediments are legacy residues found downstream from gold-mining activities at the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. To track the transport and fate of As and Sb, samples of mine-waste from the mill, and surface water, sediment,...
Modifications to risk-targeted seismic design maps for subduction and near-fault hazards
Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco, Meera Raghunandan, C. Champion
Terje Haukaas, editor(s)
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 12th international conference on applications of statistics and probability in civil engineering (ICASP12)
ASCE 7-10 introduced new seismic design maps that define risk-targeted ground motions such that buildings designed according to these maps will have 1% chance of collapse in 50 years. These maps were developed by iterative risk calculation, wherein a generic building collapse fragility curve is convolved with the U.S. Geological...
Geochemical reanalysis of historical U.S. Geological Survey sediment samples from the Zane Hills, Hughes and Shungnak quadrangles, Alaska
Melanie B. Werdon, Matthew Granitto, Jaime S. Azain
2015, Report
The State of Alaska’s Strategic and Critical Minerals (SCM) Assessment project, a State-funded Capital Improvement Project (CIP), is designed to evaluate Alaska’s statewide potential for SCM resources. The SCM Assessment is being implemented by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), and involves obtaining new airborne-geophysical, geological, and...
Changes in thyroid parameters of hatchling American kestrels (Falco sparverius) following embryonic exposure to technical short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs; C10-13, 55.5% CL)
Kimberly J. Fernie, Paula F. P. Henry, Robert J. Letcher, Vince P. Palace, Lisa E. Peters, Barnett A. Rattner, Edward Sverko, Natalie K. Karouna-Renier
2015, Organohalogen Compounds (77) 398-400
Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are complex mixtures of polychlorinated n-alkanes categorized according to their carbon chain length: short chain (SCCPs, C10 – C13), medium (C14 - C17), and long chain (C>17), chlorinated paraffins. SCCPs are primarily used in metalworking applications, as flame retardants, and in paints, adhesives, sealants, textiles, plastics and...
Fisheries research and monitoring activities of the Lake Erie Biological Station, 2014
Betsy L. Bodamer Scarbro, William Edwards, Carrie Gawne, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Richard T. Kraus, Mark W. Rogers, Taylor Stewart
2015, Report, Compiled reports to the Great Lakes Fishery commission of the annual bottom trawl and acoustics surveys, 2014
In 2014, the USGS LEBS successfully completed large vessel surveys in all three of Lake Erie’s basins. Lake Erie Biological Station’s primary vessel surveys included the Western Basin Forage Fish Assessment and East Harbor Forage Fish Assessment as well as contributing to the cooperative multi-agency Central Basin Hydroacoustics Assessment, the...
2014 National Park visitor spending effects: economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation
Catherine Cullinane Thomas, Christopher Huber, Lynne Koontz
2015, Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/EQD/NRR—2015/947
The National Park System covers more than 84 million acres and is comprised of more than 401 sites across the Nation. These lands managed by the National Park Service (NPS) serve as recreational destinations for visitors from across the Nation and around the world. On vacations or on day trips,...
Tsunami geology in paleoseismology
Yuichi Nishimura, Bruce E. Jaffe
2015, Report, The Contribution of Palaeoseismology to Seismic Hazard Assessment in Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations
The 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Tohoku-oki disasters dramatically demonstrated the destructiveness and deadliness of tsunamis. For the assessment of future risk posed by tsunamis it is necessary to understand past tsunami events. Recent work on tsunami deposits has provided new information on paleotsunami events, including their recurrence interval and...
Suspended-sediment dynamics in the tidal reach of a San Francisco Bay tributary
Gregory Shellenbarger, Maureen A. Downing-Kunz, David H. Schoellhamer
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th physics of estuaries and coastal seas (PECS) conference
To better understand suspended-sediment transport in a tidal slough adjacent to a large wetland restoration project, we deployed continuously-measuring temperature, salinity, depth, turbidity, and velocity sensors since 2010, and added a dissolved-oxygen sensor in 2012, at a near-bottom location in Alviso Slough (Alviso, California USA). Alviso Slough is the downstream...
Examining the utility of bulk otolith δ13C to describe diet in wild-caught black rockfish Sebastes melanops
Vanessa R. von Biela, Seth D. Newsome, Christian E. Zimmerman
2015, Aquatic Biology (23) 201-208
Otolith carbon isotope δ13C values may provide temporally resolved diet proxies in fish. If otolith δ13C values reflect diet, isotope values from recent otolith and muscle tissue should correlate and known ontogenetic diet shifts should be reflected in comparisons between otolith material deposited during different life history stages. We analyzed...
Time-varying interseismic strain rates and similar seismic ruptures on the Nias-Simeulue patch of the Sunda megathrust
Aron J. Meltzner, Kerry E. Sieh, Hong-Wei Chiang, Chung-Che Wu, Louisa L.H. Tsang, Chuan-Chou Shen, Emma M. Hill, Bambang W. Suwargadi, Danny H. Natawidjaja, Belle Philibosian, Richard W. Briggs
2015, Quaternary Science Reviews (122) 258-281
Fossil coral microatolls from fringing reefs above the great (MW 8.6) megathrust rupture of 2005 record uplift during the historically reported great earthquake of 1861. Such evidence spans nearly the entire 400-km strike length of the 2005 rupture, which was previously shown to be bounded by two persistent barriers...
Permissive tracts for sediment-hosted lead-zinc-silver deposits in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (phase V, deliverable 73)
Jeffrey L. Mauk
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-J
Although Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) deposits have not been recognized in Mauritania there are permissive tracts for these deposits in the regionally extensive Proterozoic carbonate rocks of the Taoudeni Basin. Permissive tracts for undiscovered MVT Pb-Zn-Ag deposits in the Proterozoic carbonate units are supported by the occurrences of MVT mineral and...
Having it both ways? Land use change in a U.S. midwestern agricultural ecoregion
Roger F. Auch, Chris R. Laingen
2015, Professional Geographer (67) 84-97
Urbanization has been directly linked to decreases in area of agricultural lands and, as such, has been considered a threat to food security. Although the area of land used to produce food has diminished, often overlooked have been changes in agricultural output. The Eastern Corn Belt Plains (ECBP) is an...
Preface
J. Wright Horton Jr., Martin C. Chapman, Russell A. Green
2015, Geological Society of America Special Papers (509) vii-vii
This book grew out of a topical session on “Central Virginia Earthquakes of 2011: Geology, Geophysics, and Significance for Seismic Hazards in Eastern North America” at the 2012 The Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). It also benefitted from related sessions...
Cenozoic stratigraphy and structure of the Chesapeake Bay region
David S. Powars, Lucy E. Edwards, Susan M. Kidwell, J. Stephen Schindler
2015, Book
The Salisbury embayment is a broad tectonic downwarp that is filled by generally seaward-thickening, wedge-shaped deposits of the central Atlantic Coastal Plain. Our two-day field trip will take us to the western side of this embayment from the Fall Zone in Washington, D.C., to some of the bluffs along Aquia...
Mineral potential for sediment-hosted copper deposits in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (phase V, deliverable 75)
Cliff D. Taylor, Stuart A. Giles
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-K
The presence of Neoproterozoic through Cambrian, continental, siliciclastic sedimentary rocks interbedded with dolomitic carbonates, shales, and glacial tillites similar to the Katanga Supergroup host rocks of the Central African Copperbelt and other sediment-hosted copper-bearing Proterozoic sequences worldwide, is first order criteria for consideration of the Neoproterozoic units of the Taoudeni...
Mineral potential for volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, (phase V, deliverable 77)
Cliff D. Taylor, Stuart A. Giles
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-L
Potential for base- and precious-metal-bearing volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits (VMS) exists in Mauritania in the greenstone belts of the southwestern Rgueïbat Shield and in the allochthonous portions of the central and southern Mauritanides. Additional potential exists for VMS deposits within the Tiris Complex of the central Rgueïbat Shield. Volcanosedimentary successions...
Algoma-, Superior-, and oolitic-type iron deposits of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (phase V, deliverable 83)
Cliff D. Taylor, Carol A. Finn, Eric D. Anderson, M. Y. Joud, M. A. Taleb, John D. Horton
2015, Open-File Report 2013-1280-O
High-grade hematitic iron ores (or HIF, containing 60–65 percent Fe) have been mined in Mauritania from Superior-type iron deposits since 1952. Depletion of the high grade ores in recent years has resulted in a number of new projects focused on lower grade magnetite ores in Algoma-type banded iron formation (or...
Evaluation of vector coastline features extracted from 'structure from motion'-derived elevation data
Nicole Kinsman, Ann E. Gibbs, Matt Nolan
2015, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the Coastal Sediments 2015
For extensive and remote coastlines, the absence of high-quality elevation models—for example, those produced with lidar—leaves some coastal populations lacking one of the essential elements for mapping shoreline positions or flood extents. Here, we compare seven different elevation products in a lowlying area in western Alaska to establish their appropriateness...
Impacts of fire management on aboveground tree carbon stocks in Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
John R. Matchett, James A. Lutz, Leland W. Tarnay, Douglas G. Smith, Kendall M.L. Becker, Matthew L. Brooks
2015, Report, Natural Resource Report NPS/SIEN/NRR—2015/910
Forest biomass on Sierra Nevada landscapes constitutes one of the largest carbon stocks in California, and its stability is tightly linked to the factors driving fire regimes. Research suggests that fire suppression, logging, climate change, and present management practices in Sierra Nevada forests have altered historic patterns of landscape carbon...
Evidence for slip partitioning and bimodal slip behavior on a single fault: Surface slip characteristics of the 2013 Mw7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake
William D. Barnhart, Richard W. Briggs, Nadine G. Reitman, Ryan D. Gold, Gavin P. Hayes
2015, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (420) 1-11
Deformation is commonly accommodated by strain partitioning on multiple, independent strike-slip and dip-slip faults in continental settings of oblique plate convergence. As a corollary, individual faults tend to exhibit one sense of slip – normal, reverse, or strike-slip – until whole-scale changes in boundary conditions reactivate preexisting faults in a...
To predict the niche, model colonization and extinction
Charles B. Yackulic, James D. Nichols, Janice Reid, Ricky Der
2015, Ecology (96) 16-23
Ecologists frequently try to predict the future geographic distributions of species. Most studies assume that the current distribution of a species reflects its environmental requirements (i.e., the species' niche). However, the current distributions of many species are unlikely to be at equilibrium with the current distribution of environmental conditions, both...